Zach Schmidt has been waiting for this moment. His second full-length album Raise a Banner was recorded and slated for a 2020 release but shelved along with so many other projects from artists around the world. Released in 2021, the album’s themes are now more apropos than ever: fighting through hardship, searching for truth in a world of lies, enduring personal loss.
Produced by Sadler Vaden at Nashville’s Creative Workshop, Raise a Banner is a leap forward for Schmidt and an exclamatory flag-planting of a commanding voice in the Americana genre, establishing him amongst the ilk with whom he recorded. Backing him throughout the album is Jason Isbell’s 400 Unit (Jimbo Hart, Chad Gamble, Derry Deboria and Vaden) with Isbell playing electric guitar on the barn-burning "Foregone Conclusion" and longtime contributors, vocalist Jackie Berkley and pedal steel wingman Adam Kurtz.
"The record Raise a Banner was written from a place of uncertainty," Schmidt says. "Uncertainty of the world that surrounds us in hopes that this album can tell stories of the broken in order to bring light back to dark times."
The slow-rolling Southern rock of "I Can't Dance" will shake some dust off the boots of Drive By Truckers and Springsteen devotees and the warm, punchy, warbly Hammond B3 organ is a perfect sonic metaphor for Schmidt’s big, oak-y vocal timbre featured throughout the album. Tunes like "You’re Still on My Mind" and "Back Around" that feature an acoustic guitar and keys combo perfectly isolate the soulful range of Schmidt’s voice.
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